Fire Destroys London Paint Manufacturer Building

A massive fire blazed through a warehouse of London-based coatings manufacturer Rustins last week. The company, which makes wood finishes and specialty paints, said the flames destroyed everything that was stored there.

Reports say that the London Fire Brigade was initially called to the fire at about 9:20 p.m. Jan. 8. A total of 15 fire engines with nearly 100 firefighters were at the scene to fight the blaze, which was brought under control in about three hours.

"This is a significant fire at a paint factory off the North Circular which can be seen across London,” an LFB spokesperson said. “The fire completely destroyed the single-story building. Factory workers left before the Brigade arrived. There were no reports of any injuries. Firefighters will be at the scene throughout the night damping down pockets of fire.

“Fire crews worked extremely hard to remove around 50 100-gallon drums of thinners and solvent from an adjacent building and cooled two large tanks that were situated close to the fire. This quick thinking from fire crews dramatically limited the potential impact of the blaze.”

Rustins took to its website (where it also notes that a fire destroyed a company warehouse in 2004) to release a statement, which read: “On the evening of Monday January 8, 2018, Rustins suffered a damaging fire at our warehouse in north London with all of our stock destroyed. The London Fire Brigade attended to put out the fire and is investigating the cause.

“At this point our factory appears to be in working order. We are working on our business continuity plans to liaise with our customers, suppliers and employees to get back to production as soon as possible. We will update you when we have more information and thank you in advance for your continued support.”